I was born ready m*th#r F^c&#r __ Wesley Snipes as “Blade” (Trinity 2004)

The phrase “I was born ready” has become a cliche of action cinema and television, with examples given here, here, and here. Hollywood even portrays infants thinking and communicating with each other using adult-level vocabularies and insights, in films such as Look Who’s Talking. Advertisements use the same trick, to good effect.

When adults interact with young infants, they often credit the child with mental abilities far beyond his level of development. It is almost as if adults want babies to be born ready for what they will have to face. Perhaps parents and others do not want to bear the burden of preparing the child for his future, since that would involve a lot of conscious effort over an extended period of time.

And we see that wishful thinking reflected in neglectful behaviours over the child’s upbringing. Daycare, kindergarten, and school systems are expected to provide children with the tools they will need to face future challenges. Children are thrown into the greedy maws of the system, which is expected to spit out a fully matured and capable adult sometime in his 20s. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to be working.

Spare rooms in the basements and garage lofts of middle-aged and elderly parents are filling up with young adult to middle-aged college graduates and dropouts, who lack a clue as to who they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to do. Perhaps it is poetic justice for such parents and a comfort to them to know where their children are, but society as a whole is not likely to profit.

There are many roads to an Idiocracy, and modern societies appear to be utilising as many of those roads as possible.

There is some truth in the idea that children are “born ready.” They are born ready to learn an incredible amount of useful knowledge. They are ready to develop skills and competencies across a wide range of fields. When they ultimately fail to do so, whose fault is it?

Every child is genetically and epigenetically unique. He is most likely to be understood
best by those most similar to him, as long as they themselves are reasonably competent and balanced. The upbringing of each child is a challenge, but if done correctly, the child does most of the work, and makes most of the choices. Early in life the choices are made unconsciously, but as the child develops he makes more and more of his choices on the conscious, deliberative level.

The Dangerous Child Method focuses on assisting the child’s journey in discovering his preferred approach to life, while helping him develop skills and competencies of mind and body which will boost him toward reaching intermediate and longer term goals.

Most parents probably do not want their children to be dangerous, either in the Dangerous Child sense, or in the more dysfunctional sense of dangerousness which is commonly assumed. Certainly most societies and societal hierarchies prefer to keep most children as dumbed down and oblivious as possible.

But most societies are well on their way to Idiocracy and the collapse that greedy corruption generally leads to — if other catastrophes do not intercede first.

So remember: Children are born ready. Ready to be given a chance to follow their own unique and optimal paths. The schema for this path of development will have to come from parents and those who love the child almost as much as the parents. “Society” doesn’t qualify. Government doesn’t qualify. Popular culture doesn’t qualify. Peer influences do not qualify. School systems from K through university do not qualify. Families who depend upon those institutions to raise their children are contributing to the looming Idiocracy.

For now, blogging will be slower, and will focus more upon The Dangerous Child and closely related topics.

2 Responses to On Being Born Ready

“But most societies are well on their way to Idiocracy and the collapse that greedy corruption generally leads to — if other catastrophes do not intercede first.”

There was a sustained, focused and highly effective effort during the 20th century to not only downplay, but render taboo, any consideration of genetic influences on behavior — most particularly intelligence. This sustained and focused effort was conducted by high IQ members of a tribe that is known for its highly heritable IQ scores a standard deviation above the rest of the population.